2008 Halloween Classic

Mohican Sailing Club, Mansfield OH

Oct. 18-19

For the Mid-west another Jet-14 sailing season is in the record books.  In recent history we wrap up the year with the Mohican Halloween Classic Regatta, and so it goes again this year.

Relying on the comments of our guests, we had a great regatta.

It was cool, with highs in the high 50's Saturday and maybe 60 Sunday, but make no mistake, Sunday morning the boatcovers were stiff and coated with frost.  But it was blue skies both days and Saturday served up fairly good breezes, 2-10 knots, definitely shifty and spotty, and across the lake so the courses were fairly short and the weather mark was in the shadow of the weather shore, trying at times for sure.

In race one Brent and Ben got off to their usual good start, with Class new comers Brian and Kim Duff in hot pursuit.  Todd Lochner had been generous enough to loan Brian and Kim his boat for the regatta, and Ted Reshetiloff had pulled it out on the triple..........but somehow, somewhere between Annapolis and Mohican the mast had come up missing, big bummer.  So Mohican’s Chad Clark, who was unable to sail this year made his boat available, Thank you Chad!  Anyway the Duffs were looking good up the first leg.  So was Ivan Baker with rock star crew Ryan Gallager on board.  The two of them were all over the front of the fleet all day which they made stick with a solid third overall for the regatta.   The range of finishes across the fleet demonstrate the perils of the shifty wind and short legs, with nearly every crew having things not go their way in at least one race.  Even Brent and Ben had to eat a very ugly second in race three.  By that time Bryan and Tiffany Parker were getting back into their usual winning form.  The Michos’s were always in the hunt.  Mike and Jon Chambers were putting together a string of top ten finishes.  and in my Nephew Paul’s #324 was Wes Blazer and Ryan Kyle, acting like they were contenders, nipping at the leaders heels in race after race.  This might have ruined my dinner except for their 17^th in race one which kept them behind me overall at least.  Hank Boissoneault and Racheal were just solid and getting #1076 going better and better with many, many rig adjustments between each race.

Some of the biggest news was the terrific series Karen Hugon and Ann Roessner put together, winning, their first win overall ever, the “B” Fleet, with guests Jimmy Ward and Jayme Huntley in my nephew Tom’s #120 in the second spot.  Matt Scantland and Meara Modlich are quitely making thier way up the ladder, taking 3^rd. 

My sister Barb was planning on making a move this year and had brought in her gold fleet crew, Sue Halliwell.  Unfortunately Sue was hamstrung with some sort of gastric malady.  I think it is enough to say that after some lurching around and loud groaning, it was more than either one of them could take and it was in early to be first in line for dinner.

Dinner was an event in itself.  We had grill-it-yourself new York Strip steaks and Chicken, French fries, salad bar with real bacon bits, apple sauce, rolls and too many desserts to count.  Before that Barb and Sue set up the bar and served hot toddies of cider and lots of spiced rum.  Brent spent most of the night talking to a coat rack.

Then, before the smells of cooking could dissipate, it was time for breakfast.....the He-Mann.  It is always interesting to watch people who are normally late risers and polite, up early, somewhat disoriented, some with  serious bed heads, forcing their way into line to get served.

Sailing wise, it just wasn’t to be Sunday morning.  The frost was definitely on the pumpkin, but not a whisper of wind anywhere.  So around 10:00 p.m.  The race committee pulled the plug and the un-rigging began. 

Thank you as always to our guests, for making the journey to be with us.  Thank you also to Mike Fulton and Denny Dieball for once  again donating their whole weekend to us to set the courses and run our regatta.  Thanks to all of Fleet #4 members that worked so hard to make it all happen: Mike and Jon Chambers for all of Lunch on Saturday, Stewart and Heather FitzGibbon for all the help with Dinner, everyone that prepared a desert to share, barb and Sue for setting up and running the bar, a big thanks to my step-daughter Emma for baby sitting all weekend and for cooking the bacon to perfection for the He-man, to my newphews for letting me loan out their boats, and to Ted and Todd for helping the Duff’s get on board.  And a very big thank you to my wife Carol for sailing and working until she hurt all over.

I can hardly wait to see you all again, next year.

Marion Zaugg, #1132

Results Posted 10/24/08

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